Jaimeo Brown: Transcendence

Jazz has an indelible history of protest, and in a time of conflict and trouble, transcendence is recognition of the musician’s role as philosopher, and the potential of art to ask questions, build ideas and contribute to meaningful social change.

If you want to know what is important to a people – listen to their music.

Transcendence seeks to enable a potentially self-sufficient community to use history, art and technology to inspire and advance culture.

Transcendence represents humanity through all time periods. We seek to highlight the ways people around the world have used creativity, ingenuity and available technology to create new models [of music, culture and education] for their community.

Transcendence is a mosaic of history, art, and technology.

Transcendence is cultural resistance; a struggle against hegemony and a response to contemporary systems of oppression.

Transcendence is about the ways in which people can overcome.

Transcendence is art, community, and a movement.

Transcendence is a breathing art form; it looks both forwards and back simultaneously; it weaves the present through the past and to the future.

Jaimeo Brown (pronounced jah-mayo) began his drum career at age 16 with his father bassist Dartanyan Brown and mother pianist and woodwind specialist, Marcia Miget, and drum teacher, Sly Randolph, himself a Bernard Purdie protégé from Harlem. In the last 20 years, he has worked with a range of musicians including Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Q-Tip, Carl Craig, Bobby Hutcherson, Greg Osby, Joe Locke, David Murray, and several other New York based musicians. He gained extensive experience performing and educating various audiences around the world as an ambassador for the US State Department. In addition to onstage work, Jaimeo contributed program material for the Oscar and Grammy award winning documentary ‘Twenty Feet From Stardom’ and the PBS original production of Ralph Ellison’s ‘King of the Bingo Game.’ As the Director of Transcending Arts, Jaimeo is a passionate educator. He has given countless hours in community service in urban NJ and NY giving lessons to kids through programs such as NJPAC, New City Kids.

Producer Chris Sholar is one of the most in-demand guitar players in the world of Hip-hop and R&B. He has worked with the top names in the music industry ranging from Kanye West to Stevie Wonder. In 2001 he graduated William Paterson University with a B.A. degree in music. Later that year he began touring with Q-tip (A Tribe Called Quest) as guitarist and musical director.

Alto & Soprano saxophonist, Jaleel Shaw, won the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll’s for Rising Star Alto Saxophonist. He is a longtime member of the Roy Haynes Quartet, Tom Harrell’s “Colors Of A Dream” and has performed with Christian McBride, Jason Moran, the Mingus Big Band, Pat Metheny, Stefon Harris, Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jimmy Cobb and several others. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Shaw picked up the alto saxophone and surrounded himself with music at an early age. Immersing himself in the local jazz scene, he studied and performed with many of the city’s great musicians and educators and, following high school, received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he received a dual degree in Music Education and Performance. While at Berklee, Shaw was awarded the Billboard Endowed Scholarship for Outstanding Academic and Musical achievement (1998), Woodwind Department Chair Awards (1998 & 2000), The Boston Jazz Society Award (1999) and The Outstanding Student Teacher Award (2000). He later received a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he obtained a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance.